Digg has just started sending out emails inviting users to join the all new digg experience, labeled "Digg Alpha", it's the biggest change to the platform since it was launched in 2004. We knew the change was coming, as reported by Mashable, but as of writing, it is now available to a larger set of testers who requested an invite earlier this year.

The email that is being sent out reads:

Hello Owen,

Good news! You're in! Thousands of Digg users responded to our call for alpha testers, but you are among the few chosen at an early stage to check out what our team has been working on.

Here are three things you can do to kick-start your Digg v4 alpha experience.

Find and follow your friends, influencers, and news sources you trust! Once you follow these Digg users, we'll build a custom news homepage for you called "My News." My News will display news stories to you as dugg by your friends.

Get more followers! Aside from digging great content, one of the best ways to attract new followers is to update your profile. Add a photo and link to your blog, Twitter account, or Facebook profile.

Explore the "My News" and "Top News" pages. My News is the custom news page we build for you based on the people you follow, Top News is the global zeitgeist showing you the most popular stories on Digg.

We're relying on you to make the site better, so please use the feedback links on the bottom of each page to let us know what you think. You will receive an emailed survey as well. Come back frequently as we'll be adding features often.

Get started here new.digg.com and log in using your current Digg credentials.

When you head to the new Digg page, it offers a login page for those who have been granted beta access. You can't login if you don't have an invite yet. On first impression, the new design is very aesthetically pleasing:

After logging in, Digg reccomends people that you should follow, based on what you've previously dugg and looked at on the site. For me, it knows I only look at technology news, and reccomends them to me:

Next up, it offers to find friends from services across the web -- so far this includes Facebook, Twitter and your Google Contacts. All of which seamlessly integrate into Digg, and it pulls them in with little effort:

After the setup wizard completes, you are redirected to the new homepage, which has had a huge design refresh and is more simpler and intuitive:

The new Digg is only in early Alpha, so is expected to have bugs, but overall the major update to the service is hugely anticipated and welcomed by the community.

Have you got the new Digg? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.